WORLD CUP U.S. likely to be host of tourney

A decision about the tournament from September-October isn't a done deal.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The only American on FIFA's executive committee predicts the United States will host the Women's World Cup this year.
"My guess would be that they'll wind up here," Chuck Blazer, a New Yorker on the 24-man executive committee, said Sunday.
A delegation from the U.S. Soccer Federation will meet at FIFA headquarters in Switzerland Tuesday to discuss staging the tournament.
Reason for change
FIFA's executive committee decided Saturday to move the event from China because of SARS. FIFA said the United States and Australia are interested in hosting the event, scheduled for Sept. 23 to Oct. 11. Brazil and Sweden are thinking about bidding.
"Australia at the moment is having some organizational difficulties and the U.S. would be a better choice," Blazer said.
Blazer is the secretary general of CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North and Central America and the Caribbean, and is deputy chairman of FIFA's marketing and television advisory board.
Either the executive committee or the eight-man emergency committee will make the final decision, and U.S. soccer officials expect the new host will be determined within 10 days.
USSF secretary general Dan Flynn will head the delegation at Tuesday's meeting in Zurich, which also will include Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber and USSF deputy secretary general Jay Berhalter. Garber also is part of Soccer United Marketing, which owns the U.S. television rights to the 16-nation tournament.
"To take an event that most people have four years to plan for and do it in five months is going to take a lot of cooperation," U.S. Soccer Federation president Bob Contiguglia said Sunday.
Contiguglia said no decision had been made by FIFA about the new site of the tournament.
"Whoever said this is a done deal is wrong," he said.
Still, U.S. soccer officials think they are the leading contender. The United States was host of the highly successful 1999 tournament and won the final, played at the Rose Bowl.